Probably a little late for answers to your years-old questions, but here goes:
1. When Kaji first arrives, ration cards (or similar documents) are being issued. The process involves fingerprinting a man (thumb and index finger?) before he is issued the ration card. Okishima apparently recognizes the man in question, and spits on his hand to clean off his thumb, revealing ink that shows that he's already been through the process and received a ration card, and that he's trying to sneak through again to get another ration card.
2. Chen is Chinese (the character, not the actor). Kaji asks how Chen feels about the arrival of his fellow countrymen, Chinese prisoners from an anti-Japanese area, the same area that Chen's mother was from. Chen replies that he wasn't raised to be anti-Japanese, and Kaji observes that with that attitude Chen would likely be considered a Japanese sympathizer by his fellow Chinese, and executed if he lived in a battle zone.
3. The boss's name is Junichi Kuroki. The booklet accompanying the Criterion DVD set lists his character as "Manager Kuroki." I don't recall anyone referring to him by name, but he gives his name when he reads out the commendation for increasing ore production, "Read in proxy by Junichi Kuroki."
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